This invention relates generally to lighting fixtures and more particularly concerns the use of LED light bands in creating lighting effects.
LED technology can be used to facilitate simulation of natural phenomena. The shapes of the LED housings, the reflective and refractive qualities of the lenses and the configurations of the arrays, colors and diffusion patterns of the LEDs can be coordinated to produce a wide variety of effects. But the use of such coordination to produce, for example, attractive “twinkling starlight” or “licking flames” simulations, often comes with a high price tag.
One of the problems in some applications is that sheets of polycarbonate material, unlike metal sheets, cannot be economically, if at all, cold pressed. Polycarbonate LED lighting lenses are economical and, using presently known technology, crests and nadirs can, in some applications, be shaped into a sheet of polycarbonate material using a “wavy” roller. However, the rollers are limited in length so the nadirs and crests must run parallel to the length of the material. Thus, known technology cannot be used to create an elongated lens of polycarbonate with transverse crests and nadirs. But an elongated lens of polycarbonate with transverse crests and nadirs could be useful in the creation of attractive LED effects in long bands without any visual interruption of the simulated phenomena.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide a relatively inexpensive elongated lens of polycarbonate with transverse crests and nadirs. It is also an object of this invention to provide a relatively inexpensive lens of polycarbonate capable of contributing to the attractive simulation of certain visual phenomena and images. A further object of this invention is to provide an LED light band which is capable of simulation of certain visual phenomena and images, such as “licking flames.”